Your Voice Matters

To be successful, Boston Creates needs to hear diverse voices. What should be Boston's cultural priorities? From attending a town hall meeting to posting an idea on our website, there are numerous ways to share your thoughts and opinions.

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What others have shared

Fuoco Park is nestled among 3 spectacular shining gems of Hyde Park : the Municipal Building, the HP YMCA and the HP Library! The park is pretty pathetic; it has 4 entrance gates of which 3 are chained and padlocked shut and have been for years! The solitary gate that does open has to be lifted up and pushed open, resulting in a face to face close encounter with a trash barrel and the small jungle gym...

The water fountain appears to be to intended focal point of the park, based upon the fact that there are 12 benches surrounding it; unfortunately, the water fountain as a focal point is extremely underwhelming given the fact that it is only turned on for approximately 60 days per year, max! I have spoken to young mothers who said they do not use that fountain in the summer because their young children want to get down and immerse themselves in the water that pools at the base and they feel as though it may not be hygienically safe.

The landscaping is not properly maintained; There is a tree with the tree trunk covered in weeds and that was the case with all the trees in the park, as well as the weeds that are along the fence and sidewalk. I live across the street and try to get over to trim it all every year!

It is just discouraging that Hyde Park does not have a common active gathering place. We never see the young 20-40 year olds out and about with or without their kids! This park could be transformed into the 'Hyde Park Commons,' with picnic benches; folks working in the Cleary Square area could eat their lunch there. The community could bring in food push carts, we could have the farmers market there or flea markets....the possibilities are endless and exciting.

By way of example, consider the George Wright Golf Course. It is so uplifting walking by this park; the children are having fun and the adults seem to be enjoying themselves as well, this park is well used by all ages. It's a great asset for the community; a gathering place to play, read, relax, and meet your neighbors! Another example of a fully functioning park is the one on Ringgold St in the South End.

The idea is this: Boston is an extraordinary place in so many respects. We are a mecca for medicine and academics. We are a creative city with lots of artists and musicians in our midst. We have a gorgeous city and some of the most beautiful beaches, mountains and forests around. Basically, our reputation is stellar. Except in one area—friendliness.

I moved here from Ohio 36 years ago and have become, in almost every respect, a Bostonian. I have embraced all but one (okay, two—I’m still a Steelers fan. Sorry!) of our local trademark traditions. The one holdover I have from being a Midwestern gal, though, is—thank goodness—my habit of saying hello or at least smiling at everyone I pass. For years, my Boston-bred buddies have chided me. “Did you know that person?? Then why are you saying hello?” Inevitably, when someone else responds and strikes up a conversation, they’re also from the Midwest. In fact, as I rode my bike to work the other day, I saw a gal getting out of a car with an Ohio license plate, so said in passing, “Morning! I’m from Ohio, too!” Do you know what she did? She ran down the street saying, “From what part?” So I stopped and we chatted and exchanged cards.

I love my adopted city. Love it! But I want it to be more friendly and welcoming. So my proposal is—and I think it’s befitting of a new(ish) Mayor and administration, too—for an initiative called “Hello, Boston.” I want this to be known as a warm city, on top of all the other accolades people heap on top of us.

In the survey I just filled out, my excuse for not doing as many cultural and/or creative things as I’d like is that I work so hard. That said, I would be so happy to somehow carve out the time to help brainstorm on this idea and to work to make it a reality. There are so many ways in which this could make us the best city in the world and it would introduce us not only to people from all over, but even more importantly, to each other!

This past year, I had been in a dialogue with the Mayor's office about redoing a mural. Across from the Berklee building on 7 Haviland Street is a newly renovated playground. There stands an old mural. I proposed that we organize a community event to redesign and repaint the mural. I imagined that children in the area could contribute the design ideas and that a local artist (s) oversee the actual painting. I hoped that I could have my Berklee students work alongside the children to paint the mural. I could also have others play music to create a festive background. I saw this as a summer event,. I imagined that we could dedicate this as a Peace Day mural. Perhaps on Peace Day we could all come together with music and food to dedicate the mural to peace in our communities and the world. I never heard back form the woman to whom I was speaking after I asked her if there was money left over form the playground renovation that we could use for the mural costs. I understand that this project involves meeting with community and city representatives, art teachers, and artists. I believe that this event is an important one as it makes an important statement about a community coming together through art for peace. I would love to see a yearly Peace Day Community event with food, a farmers market (bringing good food to the community) and music to help celebrate the community and remind us all of our goals for peace. We all need to have faith that we can create peace. What better way to do this but through art?

I also doing Act of Kindness projects where I send out my students to use their music to support others. They do volunteer concerts and lessons. If you have any ideas of whom could use this support ( or have other ideas of music-related activities), please let me know.

Thank you for caring about the arts and recognizing their importance in our communities,

I would like to have more data available - especially to nonprofits who could share information and opportunities. Duplicity of services could be reduced and better support could be offered. With more available data, the general public could also be made more aware of opportunities and offerings.

I would also like to see more opportunities for arts and cultural organizations to network and share resources which would then go further and have a greater impact.

Thank you for gathering all of this data. I hope that it will now be well culled and used to promote and present the great cultural experiences that are possible in this great city of Boston!

I came across an organization that has dedicated itself for the past 21 years to raise the funds needed to build the first monument in the world to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion. The monument will have the poem "Are you greater than the sun / That shines on everyone: Black, Brown, Yellow, Red and White / The sun does not discriminate. (By Sara Tang in 1985.) World Unity Inc. was designated by the MBTA to be part of the development of Children’s Wharf Park and their idea to do that is amazing. Pictures of what the monument would like can be found here: http://worldunityinc.org/History.html along with more information about World Unity Inc and what they have accomplished in not just Boston but in places like Kenya too and in other parts of the world. I think their mission is a perfect fit for Boston and all the diversity found here, and I would love to see this monument come to be.

I participated in the conversation on Aug 1 in Roxbury and was very energized by the process. We had a chance to have a good conversation and share some interesting ideas. I also felt that many people in the room were activated and ready to engage. I hope that the next steps in the process will honor that energy and will continue to provide avenues to harness our input and efforts. I know that it will not be possible to act on every suggestion, but I hope it will be possible to respond to most of them or show how they are incorporated in final plans or tabled for future consideration.

The two ideas I have are 1) More grants for individual artists larger than the $2,000 mini-grants with no specific agenda like education or community benefit. 2) More residencies for individual artists at organizations in the arts and sciences and universities where artists can use resources to create new work.

I dream of being able to get to an event in Sommerville, Cambridge, or JP from my home in Brookline without spending over an hour on public transit to go just a few miles. This sounds small, but seriously limits my motivation to go to cultural and arts events (and I have a BA in Theatre and Dance!)
I've lived in DC, Chicago, and NYC and Boston's the only place where lack of adequate public transit prevents me from enjoying cultural events. It's really a shame.

We've been waiting so long. A permanent space (not borrowed for the day) for all ages to gather and create . Dance, music, theater, visual arts, writing all under one roof with a gallery! South Boston is one of the few neighborhoods without dedicated space. Wouldn't it be great to have seniors and teens sharing art making together.

People relate to the idea of Boston differently. Different neighborhoods have different ideas of arts and culture. It is important that this process showcases the uniqueness of what each neighborhood represents and shares the different voices and different cultures that make up the City of Boston.

Growing up in Boston, some of my strongest memories are of engaging in arts and culture throughout the city. Going to the museums or the puppet theater in Roslindale. I remember being part of a mural painting project at the West Roxbury Library. It was so fulfilling to be a part of it – that’s what I hope everyone can have.

I used to love to go to Winmil Fabrics in Chinatown—was going to go today, but found out they closed! :( Now I have to go further away from the city, to places not as easily accessible by public transportation, (if at all) to buy fabric and notions. I don't usually have access to a car, and I know I'm not the only one. If we can encourage small craft-related businesses to come and stay, through grants, the re-establishment of arts-neighborhoods, etc. I think more creative people will come and stay. What's the point of an artist/craftsperson, or even a person who can make/fix their own clothes, trying to set up shop here if materials are hard to come by? And that goes for folks who want to make theater/dance costumes, too, or costume crews who need things last minute. If NY can keep it up, I think we can also. (And by the way, people come from near and far to NY to buy fabric. That's money that leaves our city and goes elsewhere…)

Curators for art exhibits at the few available exhibition "places" available to everyday Boston artists have a very specific plan in mind. They curate out anything that doesn't meet that plan. They might often might not be artists themselves, but have expertise in other areas of art (history, criticism. etc.). They may be influenced by popular ideas of what would make a good show. So they keep the unpopular ideas out. Art is not about becoming a great "copyist" in an elegant manner - there's too many of those, nor is it about creating something that an inner circle of art school friends use to stimulate each other, or find interesting. Creativity is most important or what it is is illustration, not art. We don't have to all paint the same pictures in a nice "pretty" way. as our art school friends did! We need to curate into shows things we were not focusing on - or eliminate "curators". And, of course we need more exhibition spaces, including many that support this attitude. They need to be nourished, publicized, reviewed, etc. The art critics may be in the same school as the curators, so we may need new art critics too! If Boston wants to truly support art, not just fancy illustrations/clever, neat combines that make for interesting party trivia for a chosen group, then these changes MUST be made.

An essential part of the cultural life of great cities has always been performance of traditional music, as well as commissioning of new musical works drawing on traditional musics. Boston has numerous performers and composers in these genres. I envision the intersection of composers, performers and communities as an essential goal of Boston Creates.
There are many ways to access the many communities in Boston including: houses of worship, consulates, cultural organizations, educational institutions - including student clubs. These organizations have their finger on the pulse of their respective communities, and may also help this initiative achieve other goals including performance spaces promotion, etc.
Professor Jimmy Kachulis
Berklee College of Music

I want to reiterate the point I made during the initial stages of data collecting for this cultural plan, which is about the inclusion of arts writers and independent journalists in the plan. It would be great to see funding opportunities become available for those who write about the arts in the city or for blogs that focus on covering the city’s artists and exhibitions. If Boston is to catch up with the rest of the world, then it must also take its writers as seriously as it is taking its artists. We're also part of the fragile ecosystem that are the arts in Boston.
Just an idea, but any funding for arts writing and blogs could be modeled after the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation artswriters.org model.
Thanks!

First Friday Closes at 9 PM. That's a joke and a disgrace, and clearly panders to geriatric shoppers who just want their walls filled for second homes. To build a more active and innovative art scene, there needs to be a better space for community to form, and community forms around nightlife. 9 PM?! I'm screaming just thinking about it right now. It's like they don't even want people there during the already sparse once-a-month 'event'. It's like 'why wouldn't I pack my bags and go live in New York? Y'all lucky I'm still here now and I can't hold on much longer and Lord knows I'm not the first one to scream at y'all about this.' While the absence of nightlife is a ubiquitous Boston problem, 9 PM on a Friday is counter-intuitive to common sense and every event-planning instinct for creating a fun inclusive environment. It's sad being in SoWa at 9:15 on a FRIDAY NIGHT and feeling like 'riffraff' cuz gallery people gotta go home and feed their expensive purebred dogs with genetic inbred hip problems caused from the same kind of insulated outlook on sharing art with the world. Did that make sense? Y'all should adopt ur pets, I'm doublin up on my PSAs right now. XO

This is not a fully formed idea - at all - but I wonder if Boston Creates would want to work with the Parks and Rec dept. to plan an opening celebration for the John Harvard Mall in Spring 2016 when its slated to be completed. I'm not associated with the initiative. Just a Charlestown resident who is excited about the new park and the arts in Boston.

I am actively seeking a venue for my dance classes and programs ... a small hall or theater space that can function for dance classes, rehearsal space, social dance events, and performances. A 100-200 seat venue. There is no dance facility in Dorchester - why do we all have to go to Cambridge or the suburbs? Interested in something like the Riverside Theater in Hyde Park or Green Street Studios in Cambridge or the Burren in Somerville. A place situated right IN our community, in walking distance to Red Line and restaurants. Adams Village? Ashmont? The former "Penny Post" on Sydney Street, under the expressway and right by JFK UMass T stop? I would love to partner with the city or a community organization on this — dance belongs everywhere, and independent artists can't afford commercial rents in Boston!

The BPL could have a role in organizing/cataloging/providing access to community arts calendars. Conversations make clear that currently arts listings and group events are very scattered -- can the BPL help us bring them together? Probably not in one interface, but in a common space. This would require a kind of inventory or groups/participants, and libraries have the theory and structure do to this kind of work - and therefore it could be a benefit to have the BPL involved in planning. Some of these ideas came up at the Boston Creates meeting on Saturday Aug 1 at the Codman Sq Health Ctr.